Delilah is the top of her class again﻿

Nose Knows LLC ﻿ becomes the ONLY Arizona Licensed Pest Management Business to complete independent 3rd party certification for the K9/handler teams used to find Bed Bugs!

In response to the growing bed bug invasion overtaking major USA cities, the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) developed a ‘best management practices’ guideline to meet 2 requirements:

Encourage the industry to apply integrated pest management (IPM) practices in combating this escalating problem and

Provide consumers with guidance in selecting a professional in this rapidly growing industry.

The ‘best management practices’ include how to test the accuracy of K9/handler teams in finding 5 (or less) live bed bugs while simultaneously distracted by other scents-including dead bugs. This enables the pest control company to assure his K9 team can find early bed bug introductions or to evaluate infestation treatments to determine if the pests were eradicated.

Three certification associations (IBBMA, NESDCA, WDDO), developed test methods to evaluate K9 teams. They each provide the opportunity for Pest Management Professionals (PMP) with K9’s to test teams against the conditions outlined in the NPMA ‘Best Management Practices’ guidelines. Over 60 K9 teams were at the National Canine Conference with about 80% success rate.

Nose Knows LLC certified two teams in accordance with the Integrated Bed Bug Management Association (IBBMA) procedure that closely follows the NPMA ‘Best Management Practices” by limiting the target source to maximum 5 live bed bugs. In fact, it is the only certifying association that requires 100% accuracy, at the low level of source scent.

By achieving the certification, Nose Knows is able to assure consumers that the K9 teams sent to investigate bed bug problems will be able to find small quantities of the critters either before you are completely infested or after the prescribed treatment.

Nose Knows goal as an integrated pest management company is early identification of bed bugs introductions through olfactory detection, visual inspection and mechanical monitoring to keep the ‘Valley’ from being overrun by this pandemic (Phoenix is currently 21st). The goal of each K9 detection is to catch the problem before it becomes an infestation that attacks all family members, guests or employees. This approach decreases the PMP’s time consuming visual only inspections, chemical applications or heat treatments thus reducing costs to the consumer.

Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite﻿

POSTED: 10:47 am MST November 17, 2006, KPHO.com

PHOENIX -- They're more than just a bedtime myth. Bed bugs are making a comeback in Valley homes and hotels."Most people don't like the idea of laying in bed at night and being chewed up," said Dean Jenny of Truly Nolen Pest Control.The latest national statistics show a 71 percent increase in activity among the blood-sucking parasites known in scientific circles as Cimex lectularius.Complaints from people staying in Arizona hotels, resorts and spas ranged from, "I was attacked," to "My neck, arms and legs were eaten alive.""These are true bugs, by the way," said Bill Frank, an epidemiologist with the Arizona Department of Health Services.Frank said there are a number of reasons for the resurgence of bed bugs.The Valley is seeing higher numbers of international travelers who carry the parasites in from other countries.Bed bugs are notorious hitchhikers, spreading from one location to another in a person's clothes, shoes or suitcase.The bed bugs brought in by one traveler infest the person's hotel room and then go home with the next guest."Specifically, what they are looking for is a small, enclosed, tightly packed place. They like little nooks and crannies and crevices. That's where they like to hide, and areas inside of people's suitcases often form that kind of a perfect environment," Frank said.Bed bugs often hide in the stitching of mattresses and come out at night to feed on people or pets.They can also be found in furniture, behind picture frames or in carpets.CBS 5's Jason Barry offered a few tips for keeping the bed bugs at bay:

Inspect mattresses thoroughly.

Check bed sheets for tiny brown or reddish dots.

Look for brown spots around electrical outlets.

Vacuum suitcases after returning from vacations.

Bring large trash bags to wrap suitcases during hotel stays.

Call a pest professional at the first sign of possible bed bugs.

Health experts say bed bugs do not pose any significant health risks and are not considered a carrier of disease.Bed bug bites cause redness, irritation and possible swelling, but the symptoms should disappear in a couple of days.Some people, however, develop allergic reactions to the bites and should seek medical attention immediately.

Bothersome bed bugs bounce back

John FahertyThe Arizona RepublicDec. 2, 2005 12:00 AM

Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.

A familiar expression to send kids off to bed has become an actual warning.

Once nearly eradicated, the bugs are returning to beds throughout the country, including in Arizona.

Bed bugs began their comeback after the pesticide DDT was banned in this country in 1972.

The prevalence of affordable international travel also has helped them regain their footing.

Bed bugs earned their name by being nocturnal and consuming human blood while people sleep.

But the insect does not spread disease and poses no health threat.

Because they are simply a nuisance and not a health risk, no government agency in Arizona keeps track of the insects or infestations. But anecdotally there is little doubt they are here.

"You betcha," said Nic Nicoson with Truly Nolan Pest Control. "We deal with this all the time. Now we are seeing them more in residences.

"It used to be just hotels and motels."

The bugs are living in homes, apartments, hotels, motels, dormitories, shelters and buses all across America, according to Michael Potter, entomologist with the University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture.

The insects can be found anywhere.

"When people think of bed bugs they think of lower class or seediness," said Craig Levy, an epidemiologist with the state Department of Health Services. "But really the opposite is true. They often come from hotels. Nice hotels with a lot of international travelers."

The bugs are more unsettling than anything else.

"There is definitely evidence across the country and here in Arizona of bed bugs coming back," Levy said. The bed bug's actual bite is painless, but a person's reaction to it can vary.

"We see (people with bites) from time to time, not real commonly," said Dr. Richard Leonard with Pediatric Associates in Phoenix. "It all depends on a person's personal reaction to the bite. For most people, it is not a problem."

A bed bugs' status as mere nuisance is little consolation to a person when he realizes the bug is in his home and his bed.

"They get real upset," Nicoson said. "They think something is wrong with them. But there isn't. It doesn't mean a person is dirty. They probably just brought them home from (travel)."

A bug that enters a hotel room on one visitor may go home with the next occupant.

Once they arrive they are not impossible to get rid of, but it does take some doing.

Most people rely on an exterminator.

But Carl Olson, with the Department of Entomology at the University of Arizona, says the bugs are best taken in stride. "They are part of nature and you live with it. (People) just don't want the silly things in their house." ﻿

Since Medieval Times

Bedbugs creep into more offices﻿

USA Todayby Laura Petrecca - Aug. 20, 2010 08:39 AM

Your abusive boss isn't the only vermin in the office.

Defying their reputation as a scourge of households, blood-sucking bedbugs are creeping into a growing number of cubicles, break rooms and filing cabinets.

Nearly one in five exterminators have found bedbugs in office buildings in the U.S., according to a recent survey of extermination firms by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky. That compares with less than 1% in 2007.

"It's a national issue," says Ron Harrison of pest control firm Orkin. "Not all of us have to go to work and worry about it, but we all have to be sensitive to it."

Most cubicle dwellers and corner office executives are blissfully unaware of bug problems. And many wrongly think infestations take place only in the homes of unclean folks or in college dorms. But bedbugs can survive in a multitude of eek-evoking settings, such as offices, movie theaters and libraries.

Concerned about the swelling number of infestations in New York City, publishing giant Time recently brought in bedbug-sniffing dogs. The canines found a few cases, which Time had treated two weeks ago.

The District Attorney's office in Brooklyn recently discovered that they had the critters, as well, and exterminated over a weekend.

The IRS had bedbugs in its offices in Philadelphia and Covington, Ky. It had exterminators into those offices and is still monitoring the situation.

Adding to physical problems — the bites of bedbugs can itch like crazy — is the mental anguish that comes with an infestation.

When word gets out that an office building has bedbugs, a kind of mass hysteria often occurs, followed by fierce finger pointing about who's to blame for bringing them in.

Bedbug issues are "a complicated mess," says entomology professor Michael Potter of the University of Kentucky. "In my career — and I've dealt with just about every critter that bothers people — this is the most complex."

Commuting in

Once bedbugs settle into corporate digs, it's tough to get them out.

The apple-seed-size insects dine on human blood. They hide in crevices and are resilient to many insecticides. They can live for a year without feeding, and they replicate quickly. The offspring of two bedbugs that move into an office in September can produce more than 300 bugs and lay about 1,000 additional eggs by January, says Harrison.

They infiltrate the workplace through various routes, such as on the suitcases of frequent travelers or on the purses, laptop cases and gym bags of employees who have infestations at home. They can also be brought in by office visitors, vendors or maintenance staff.

"Bedbugs are hitchhikers; they travel with people and with items that travel with people," says National Pest Management Association spokeswoman Missy Henriksen.

As the parasites spread at hotels, hospitals, schools and homes, it's natural that some workers will inadvertently transport them into the office, says Larry Pinto, co-author of the Bed Bug Handbook. And in a big office, there can be more than one carrier. "(Different) people can be bringing them in," he says.

Pest management firms have had a 57% increase in bedbug-related calls in the last five years, and an 81% increase since 2000, according to the survey. Nearly all the firms polled — 95% — said they've had to tackle a bedbug case in the last year.

Four out of every 10 treatments were in commercial buildings.

"It shouldn't be any surprise that it's on the rise in office buildings," says Potter, who is considered one of the top bedbug experts in the country. "If you look at where they show up, apartments, hotels and (houses) are on the top of the food chain. But with time, they move into other places."

In one bizarre case this summer, custodians at the Argonne Armory municipal office building in Des Moines found a bag of bedbugs left on a hallway floor. Police have no idea who left the bag of bugs or why.

"It's a very odd case," says Sgt. Lori Lavorato. The investigation is still open. There are no suspects.

Infestations spreading

Putting aside the rare, rogue acts of a saboteur, pest control professionals have a few main theories about why the bugs are resurging in the U.S. They include increased travel, more immigration and the bug's resiliency to pesticides.

In addition, the "denial/lack of incident reporting by tenants, workers, landlords, hotel or business management (and) universities," has exacerbated the problem, according to the survey.

The insects are especially troublesome in densely populated cities, where they can spread quickly. But smaller areas aren't immune.

"Cincinnati is awash in bedbugs, and Detroit is coming on strong," says Mark Sheperdigian, vice president of technical services at Troy, Mich.-based Rose Pest Solutions. "We even have some small towns here in Michigan that have way more troubles with bedbugs than they deserve."

Some ways they have an impact on the workplace:

•Lawsuits and human resource woes. "Bedbug lawsuits are starting to grow like crazy," says Sheperdigian. Once the bugs start to spread, "You have other employees saying, 'I got bedbugs because you had them in the office, and I took them home.' "

Jane Clark, a Fox News Channel employee who claims she got bugs from the network's New York City newsroom, didn't sue her employer. But she did sue the building owner, management company and other entities in May 2008 for unspecified damages.

The lawsuit says that Clark first began to get bites at work around the fall of 2007, and that the defendants were negligent in rectifying the situation.

Clark's lawyer, Alan Schnurman, says Clark was wrongly reassured by managers that the bug problem "had been taken care of," but she kept getting bitten. Fox parent company News Corp. is paying her worker's compensation, and the legal case is still pending. Clark couldn't be reached for comment.

Being proactive is the best way to keep such lawsuits at bay, Sheperdigian says. "If you have a policy and you are upfront, it's a lot harder to sue an employer."

•Unwanted publicity. Global ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, which had a minor bedbug incident at its New York office last year, had those troubles posted on popular gossip site Gawker and ad industry blog AgencySpy.

Fears of incurring brand damage is what keeps many firms from broaching the subject with employees, vendors or customers.

"No one wants to be known as the company with bedbugs," says Glenn Waldorf, a director at Parsippany, N.J.-based Bell Environmental Services.

Even the folks at former president Bill Clinton's office in New York are mum on the bedbug topic. The Daily News reported that the New York City-based charity had exterminators in for bedbugs last year, but the office didn't respond to multiple USA TODAY requests for comment.

•Physical and mental anguish for workers. Some victims have absolutely no reaction, while for others, the subsequent swelling and itching can be painful.

Even without an extreme physical reaction, a bout with bedbugs can be psychologically scarring, says Potter, with victims reporting depression, anxiety, paranoia and stress. "Probably one of the most under-reported issues is the mental anguish that comes with having bedbugs," says NPMA's Henriksen

The bedbug situation was "very traumatic" for Fox's Clark, says Schnurman. When many folks think of bedbugs, they have a half-smile remembering the popular "good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite," rhyme, he says. "But when it hits home, it's horrible. It's absolutely horrible."

•Widespread infestations. If caught early enough, the bug troubles can be contained to just a few cubicles. But if management doesn't spot a problem — or ignores bug sightings — the critters can eventually take over multiple floors of an office building.

"If you go to an apartment where there's an infestation, it'll typically be centered on the bed or by the couch. But in an office, it can be anywhere," says Pinto. "They start wandering down the cubicles and down the walls looking for food."

The nocturnal critters prefer late-night dining if evening-shift workers are around, but can adjust to daytime feeding if necessary, says NPMA's Henriksen: "They are in (a) search for the human blood meal, and they will find it any way they can."

Challenging to destroy

There can be indications that bedbugs have moved in, such as employees seeing the six-legged crawler or its black fecal matter. But usually it takes a professional exterminator — and even a bedbug-sniffing dog — to unearth the full extent of the problem.

It often takes multiple treatments to completely quash an infestation.

"Their ability to survive is legendary," says Sheperdigian. "We don't have anything that works really well on them."

It took three fumigations and a heat treatment to get the situation under control at the Des Moines Armory. The total cost was $5,150.

Smaller offices often pay $5,000 to $10,000 for bedbug exterminations, while the price for larger offices can easily hit six figures, says Pinto.

Just to hire the keen-smelling canines to investigate a full floor at a large corporate office building could cost $1,000 to $5,000, says Bell Environmental Services' Waldorf.

Even after shelling out big bucks, it's almost impossible to know that every bug is dead. And if an unidentified worker has a large infestation at home — or if company business travelers stay at bedbug-ridden hotels — the critters will likely keep coming back.